


Broken Mask

by WolfPrincessSarah



Category: Warframe
Genre: One Shot, Redemption, Short One Shot, Tenno as Eldritch Horror, Tenno as Human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfPrincessSarah/pseuds/WolfPrincessSarah
Summary: A Vapos Crewman is caught between the claws of an enraged Tenno and the snares of the cult of profit. He grabs his gun, and prepares to fruitlessly fight for Alad V's fiscal quarter, but when he sees the face of evil, he hesitates. And an unexpected act of mercy changes his life forever.
Kudos: 25





	Broken Mask

In the Corpus, it was commonly said that the Tenno were void devils, betrayers of the Orokin, who came to plunder the profits and riches of all industrial, hard-working Corpus and their kin.

So it was that, when one of them visited Carpo Station for a jaunty, gore-filled stroll through Alad's workforce, Crewman #K42SKT118 was filled with a terror that could only be instilled by fear of the inevitable. He remembered that mayhem was their modus operandi, and murder their first resort. 

He knew that every time a Tenno; their Frame of War; showed their techno-organic face, entire stations went dark. Despite this, their small numbers meant that the most they could do with their great power is enforce what they called "the great balance" on all factions in the Origin system.

They had delusions of honor, and that made dealing with them incredibly unprofitable.

Alarms sounded throughout the station, its specific tone communicating that it was no harvester malfunction, reactor meltdown, nor shield collapse. To the army of Corpus stationed there, it meant one thing and one thing only:

_A Tenno has entered the facility._

* * *

Crewman #K42SKT118 rolled out of his cramped rack and stumbled over to his personal weapon locker. A quick punching in of the code, and the cabinet slid open, revealing his mass-produced Tetra. He grabbed the weapon by its barrel, then shouldered it.

He put on his helmet, and became just one of many endless lambs to the slaughter. The sound of a massive explosion outside of his lonely bunkroom signaled that the demons were already upon him.

The fight was not going well. For it was not one, but three void devils that had broken in. One was an enflamed terror, a living avatar of a cleansing light. This was the one that killed the quickest. By the time Crewman #K42SKT118 had entered the hallway, it was already wreathed in a purple fire that scorched everything it saw.

A dozen of his allies' seared corpses lined the humanoid that stood before him. It almost resembled one of the Tenno's most feared "prime" frames, with its gilded accents but it seemed to be heavily modified. Its skin was painted with black and white, while the massive twin guns it wielded seemed designed for their space exo-frames. On its back was a gilded shield, and sheathed with it was a sword that seemed forged from stardust itself.

He raised his weapon.

Just when Crewman #K42SKT118 was about to fire, an invisible arm wrapped itself around his neck, and pulled backwards, causing him to drop his rifle. The immense strength of even the lithest and sleekest of frames was something no mortal human could overcome. Despite this, there was a degree of reserve to the incomprehensibly strong bioroid. With a thought, the puppeteer behind this newcomer turned visible. The Crewman looked down and saw a black carapace clutching his neck, and another feminine arm wrapped around the midsection of his suit.

His waste relief systems were working overtime by this point, though he could not fight off some degree of an unprofitable thrill.

* * *

The Ember-type turned around, facing the crewman wordlessly, and cocked her head. She raised her arm, and purple energies surged from her palm as she prepared a fireball.

A massive monolith of what seemed to be a sturdily-built woman then walked through the flames cutting a swath through the hallway. She towered over both of her allies, and was painted a black and red palette, sharing the golden accents with the Ember-type, but she wore the black in a much darker, brutal fashion. On her waist was sheathed a jagged greatsword, painted in the same gilded accents and ebony paint the rest of her was. 

Her massive legs stomped across the metal hallway as she approached the pinned Crewman. She leveled a massive submachine gun at the sole survivor of this section and laid her finger on the trigger.

Though then, the frame holding the terrified man from behind loosened slightly, then motioned to her comrades to stand down. Both of them looked at the frame the man had been snuck up on by, confused. Despite this, the lithe frame repeated her gesture, firmer this time.

The musclebound creature made a shrugging motion, lowered her gun and walked down another hallway, to find more targets to purge. The walking flame followed her larger companion, seemingly not opting to waste their void energy on their friend's new "pet".

Perhaps it was in fear of her wrath, but Crewman #K42SKT118 was unsure what kind of threat such a small-built frame could pose to such more potent avatars of war.

Then he remembered just how dangerous all Tenno were when a restrained kick struck him on his back. He flipped around and saw the face of his hunter. For a brief moment he was almost enthralled by her beauty. For this was a rare specimen on the front lines, and rarely seen anywhere else, for their litheness was only matched by their adeptness at stealth.

_Ivara._

And not just any Ivara. This was a modified Prime model, reconstructed and reforged to Youkai Patterns. For what purpose, an Ivara would be here, he couldn't say. Her jet-black carapace alone filled the man with dread; for the dreaded abyss bore the same colors. Silvery accents lined her body like regal jewelry. 

She retrieved her bow from her back and notched a high-tech arrow into it, then pointed it at the defenseless man.

Behind his helmet, the salaryman closed his eyes and accepted the inevitable. She released, and the man found he was still more than alive, and had felt no great impaling impact like he was expecting.

All he heard was a dark _thud_ to his left.

The void devil leaned down and knelt before the horrified Crewman, then reached towards his head. She felt around for something she knew was present, a simple latch. Finding her quarry, she finally pressed the switch, released the helmet, and pulled the steel prison off of her new friend's head.

She discarded it into the slowly fading purple flames her own ally had left behind, and its metal surface was almost instantly as scorched as the bodies found within. The creature sheathed her bow on her back and gave the man a gentle, shallow bow.

The man's mouth quivered. He looked to the left, and was met with an arrow impaled into the steel, almost a foot to the left of his head. A deliberate miss.

Or a message.

* * *

The Crewman looked back at his captor, who simply gestured to the scorched mask, which had been blackened irrevocably by the purple heat. Then she pointed at what passed for such a thing's face.

What was she trying to tell him?

Crewman #K42SKT118 looked down at his singed suit and thought for a moment.

To the Corpus, it was tacitly understood that the Tenno were void devils, betrayers of the Orokin, who came to plunder the profits and riches of all industrial, hard-working Corpus and their kin.

But it was on that day that Crewman #K42SKT118 learned the truth.

These were not monsters or horrors out to ravage their empires and build their own from their ashes.

No, they were soldiers like him, fighting wars only they could. Nightmares and terrors from beyond the abyss... but they did not kill for their own profit.

They were titans of war, straddling the lines between gods and mortals, with technologies the Corpus had lusted after all their collective dread-long life.

But yet they did not come here to kill, no. They only killed because their enemies gave them no choice.

Their honor was no delusion.

It was who they were.

* * *

* * *

Strata Relay was supposedly the heart of the Tenno regime. Though once destroyed by a Corpus Razorback, it had been rebuilt by one of their Grineer defector allies as kindness for their incredible support throughout the years; though of course, they didn't do it for free.

Crewman #K42SKT118 stepped off of a Tenno shuttle. 

But when he stepped onto the station, he was Kit, one of many new members of the Perrin Sequence.

Among the Corpus, it was commonly said that the Tenno were void devils, betrayers of the Orokin, who came to plunder the profits and riches of all industrial, hard-working Corpus and their kin.

But to the Sequence, they were their strongest allies.

**Author's Note:**

> Short little one-shot inspired by a conversation with a friend. I'll get back to RWBY soon, I promise.
> 
> Corpus Lad: "I will kill Tenno and appease Salad Dressing."  
> [One Cute Froggo:](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcR-_IJBnsFyAgPrFT2y10Cmvpak969ohV7HFPkkFjtbqxXptyyQ&usqp=CAU) "Boutta ruin this lad's whole career, ~~literally~~."


End file.
